1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to thermal printers and, more particularly, to a media supply for use in thermal ink transfer printers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of electronically controlled thermal printers has increased very rapidly over the last few years. In particular, the market for thermal label printers has shown significant improvement with users focusing on utilizing label printing, especially, bar-code labelling, to improve capital asset management, inventory control or time and attendance reporting--or to meet corporate or industry mandated labelling requirements--such as automotive AIAG, electronic EIA or retail UCC/UPC specifications. Label printers typically incorporate a media supply of "peel away" labels adhered to a coated substrate wound in a rolled configuration. The media with the labels is drawn against a printing head, which, in turn, causes, by localized heating, a transfer of ink from an ink ribbon to a label.
In conventional label printers, the media is positioned or "hung" about a support and is drawn off the media core to be sent through the printing head by a drive motor associated with the printing head or with a take-up roll mechanism. A disadvantage of this prior art arrangement, however, is that the media when passing through the printing head is not under tension, which, undesirably affects registration of the printing head with the media labels. This results in less accuracy or registration of the print, and, consequently a relatively increased number of rejected printed units.
Accordingly, the present invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by providing a media hub supply to be incorporated in a thermal transfer printers, which maintains a defined axis of rotation for the media and a constant drag or tension on the media during the printing process to thereby improve print quality and print registration.